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A Concise History of American Literature
What is literature?
Literature is language artistically
used to achieve identifiable literary qualities
and to convey
meaningful messages.
Chapter 1 Colonial Period
I.
Background:
Puritanism
1.
features of Puritanism
(1)
Predestination: God decided everything
before things occurred.
(2)
Original
sin:
Human
beings
were
born
to
be
evil,
and
this
original
sin
can
be
passed down from
generation to generation.
(3)
Total
depravity
(4)
Limited atonement: Only the “elect” can
be saved.
2.
Influence
(1)
A
group
of
good
qualities
–
hard
work,
thrift,
piety,
sobriety
(serious
and
thoughtful) influenced American
literature.
(2)
It led to the everlasting myth. All
literature is based on a myth
–
garden of Eden.
(3)
Symbolism:
the American puritan’s metaphorical mode
of perception was chiefly
instrumental
in
calling
into
being
a
literary
symbolism
which
is
distinctly
American.
(4)
With
regard
to
their
writing,
the
style
is
fresh,
simple
and
direct;
the
rhetoric
is
plain
and
honest,
not
without
a
touch
of
nobility
often
traceable
to
the
direct
influence of the
Bible.
II.
Overview of the literature
1.
types of
writing
diaries, histories, journals,
letters, travel books,
autobiographies/biographies, sermons
2.
writers of
colonial period
(1)
Anne Bradstreet
(2)
Edward Taylor
(3)
Roger
Williams
(4)
John
Woolman
(5)
Thomas Paine
(6)
Philip Freneau
III.
Jonathan
Edwards
1.
life
2.
works
(1)
The Freedom
of the Will
(2)
The Great Doctrine of Original Sin
Defended
(3)
The
Nature of True Virtue
3.
ideas
–
pioneer
of transcendentalism
(1)
The spirit of revivalism
(2)
Regeneration
of man
(3)
God’s
presence
(4)
Puritan idealism
IV.
Benjamin
Franklin
1.
life
2.
works
(1)
Poor
Richard’s
Almanac
(2)
Autobiography
3.
contribution
(1)
He
helped
found
the
Pennsylvania
Hospital
and
the
American
Philosophical
Society.
(2)
He was called
“the new Prometheus who had stolen fire
(electricity in this case
)
-
1 -
from heaven”.
(3)
Everything
seems to meet in this one man
–
“Jack of all
trades”. Herman Melville
thus described
him “master of each and mastered by
none”.
Chapter 2 American
Romanticism
Section 1 Early Romantic
Period
What is Romanticism?
?
An approach
from ancient Greek: Plato
?
A literary trend: 18c in Britain
(1798~1832)
?
Schlegel Bros.
I.
Preview: Characteristics of romanticism
1.
subjectivity
(1)
feeling and
emotions, finding truth
(2)
emphasis on imagination
(3)
emphasis on
individualism
–
personal
freedom, no hero worship, natural goodness
of human beings
2.
back to
medieval, esp medieval folk literature
(1)
unrestrained
by classical rules
(2)
full of imagination
(3)
colloquial
language
(4)
freedom of imagination
(5)
genuine in
feelings: answer their call for classics
3.
back to nature
nature is “breathing living thing”
(Rousseau)
II.
American Romanticism
1.
Background
(1)
Political
background and economic development
(2)
Romantic
movement in European countries
Derivative
–
foreign influence
2.
features
(1)
American
romanticism
was
in
essence
the
expression
of
“a
real
new
experience
and contained “an alien quality” for
the simple reason that “the spirit of the place”
was radically new and alien.
(2)
There is
American Puritanism as a cultural heritage to
consider. American romantic
authors
tended
more
to
moralize.
Many
American
romantic
writings
intended
to
edify more than they
entertained.
(3)
The
“newness”
of
Americans
as
a
nation
is
in
connection
with
American
Romanticism.
(4)
As a logical
result of the foreign and native factors at work,
American romanticism
was both imitative
and independent.
III.
Washington Irving
1.
several names
attached to Irving
(1)
first American writer
(2)
the messenger
sent from the new world to the old world
(3)
father of
American literature
2.
life
3.
works
(1)
A History of New York from the
Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch
Dynasty
(2)
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon,
Gent. (He won a measure of international
recognition with the publication of
this.)
(3)
The
History of the Life and V
oyages of
Christopher Columbus
(4)
A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada
- 2 -
(5)
The Alhambra
4.
Literary career: two parts
(1)
1809~1832
a.
Subjects are
either English or European
b.
Conservative
love for the antique
(2)
1832~1859: back to US
5.
style
–
beautiful
(1)
gentility,
urbanity, pleasantness
(2)
avoiding moralizing
–
amusing and entertaining
(3)
enveloping
stories in an atmosphere
(4)
vivid and true characters
(5)
humour
–
smiling while reading
(6)
musical
language
IV.
James Fenimore Cooper
1.
life
2.
works
(1)
Precaution
(1820, his first novel, imitating Austen’s
Pride and Prejudice
)
(2)
The Spy (his
second novel and great success)
(3)
Leatherstocking Tales (his masterpiece,
a series of five novels)
The
Deerslayer,
The
Last
of
the
Mohicans,
The
Pathfinder,
The
Pioneer,
The
Prairie
3.
point of view
the theme of
wilderness vs. civilization, freedom vs. law,
order vs. change, aristocrat vs.
democrat, natural rights vs. legal
rights
4.
style
(1)
highly
imaginative
(2)
good at inventing tales
(3)
good at
landscape description
(4)
conservative
(5)
characterization wooden and lacking in
probability
(6)
language and use of dialect not
authentic
5.
literary achievements
He
created a myth about the formative period of the
American nation. If the history of
the
United
States
is,
in
a
sense,
the
process
of
the
American
settlers
exploring
and
pushing the American
frontier forever westward, then Cooper’s
Leatherstocking Tales
effectively approximates the American
national experience of adventure into the West.
He
turned
the
west
and
frontier
as
a
useable
past and he
helped
to
introduce
western
tradition to
American literature.
Section 2 Summit
of Romanticism
–
American
Transcendentalism
I.
Background: four sources
1.
Unitarianism
(1)
Fatherhood of
God
(2)
Brotherhood of men
(3)
Leadership of
Jesus
(4)
Salvation by character (perfection of
one’s character)
(5)
Continued
progress of mankind
(6)
Divinity of
mankind
(7)
Depravity of mankind
2.
Romantic
Idealism
Center of the world is spirit,
absolute spirit (Kant)
3.
Oriental mysticism
Center of
the world is “oversoul”
- 3
-
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
4.
Puritanism
Eloquent
expression in transcendentalism
Appearance
1836, “Nature” by
Emerson
Features
1.
spirit/oversoul
2.
importance of
individualism
3.
nature
–
symbol
of spirit/God
garment of the oversoul
4.
focus in
intuition (irrationalism and subconsciousness)
Influence
1.
It served as an ethical guide to life
for a young nation and brought about the idea that
human
can
be
perfected
by
nature.
It
stressed
religious
tolerance,
called
to
throw
off
shackles
of
customs
and
traditions
and
go
forward
to
the
development
of
a
new
and
distinctly American culture.
2.
It
advocated
idealism
that
was
great
needed
in
a
rapidly
expanded
economy
where
opportunity often became opportunism,
and the desire to “get on” obscured the
moral
necessity for rising
to spiritual height.
3.
It helped to create the first American
renaissance
–
one of the
most prolific period in
American
literature.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
1.
life
2.
works
(1)
Nature
(2)
Two essays:
The American Scholar, The Poet
3.
point of view
(1)
One major
element of his philosophy is his firm belief in
the transcendence of the
“oversoul”.
(2)
He regards
nature as the purest, and the most sanctifying
moral influence on man,
and advocated a
direct intuition of a spiritual and immanent God
in nature.
(3)
If
man
depends
upon
himself,
cultivates
himself
and
brings
out
the
divine
in
himself,
he
can
hope
to
become
better
and
even
perfect.
This
is
what
Emerson
means by “the infinitude of
man”.
(4)
Everyone should understand that he
makes himself by making his world, and that
he makes the world by making himself.
4.
aesthetic
ideas
(1)
He is a
complete man, an eternal man.
(2)
True poetry
and true art should ennoble.
(3)
The poet
should express his thought in symbols.
(4)
As to theme,
Emerson called upon American authors to celebrate
America which
was to him a lone poem in
itself.
5.
his
influence
Henry David Thoreau
1.
life
2.
works
(1)
A Week on the
Concord and Merrimack River
(2)
Walden
(3)
A Plea for
John Brown (an essay)
3.
point of view
(1)
He
did
not
like
the
way
a
materialistic
America
was
developing
and
was
vehemently outspoken on
the point.
(2)
He
hated the human injustice as represented by the
slavery system.
- 4 -
(3)
Like
Emerson,
but
more
than
him,
Thoreau
saw
nature
as
a
genuine
restorative,
healthy
influence on man’s spiritual
well
-being.
(4)
He has faith in the inner virtue and
inward, spiritual grace of man.
(5)
He was very
critical of modern civilization.
(6)
“Simplicity…simplify!”
(7)
He
was
sorely
disgusted
with
“the
inundations
of
the
dirty
institutions
of
men’s
odd-
fellow
society”.
(8)
He has calm trust in the future and his
ardent belief in a new generation of men.
Section 3 Late Romanticism
I.
Nathaniel
Hawthorne
1.
life
2.
works
(1)
Two
collections of short stories: Twice-told Tales,
Mosses from and Old Manse
(2)
The Scarlet
Letter
(3)
The
House of the Seven Gables
(4)
The Marble
Faun
3.
point of
view
(1)
Evil is
at the core of human life, “that
blackness in Hawthorne”
(2)
Whenever
there
is
sin,
there
is
punishment.
Sin
or
evil
can
be
passed
from
generation to generation (causality).
(3)
He is of the
opinion that evil educates.
(4)
He has
disgust in science.
4.
aesthetic ideas
(1)
He took a
great interest in history and antiquity. To him
these furnish the soil on
which his
mind grows to fruition.
(2)
He was convinced that romance was the
predestined form of American narrative.
To tell the truth and satirize and yet
not to offend: That was what Hawthorne had in
mind to achieve.
5.
style
–
typical romantic writer
(1)
the use of
symbols
(2)
revelation of characters’
psychology
(3)
the use of supernatural mixed with the
actual
(4)
his
stories are parable (parable inform)
–
to teach a lesson
(5)
use of
ambiguity to keep the reader in the world of
uncertainty
–
multiple point
of
view
II.
Herman Melville
1.
life
2.
works
(1)
Typee
(2)
Omio
(3)
Mardi
(4)
Redburn
(5)
White Jacket
(6)
Moby Dick
(7)
Pierre
(8)
Billy Budd
3.
point of view
(1)
He
never
seems
able
to
say
an
affirmative
yes
to
life:
His
is
the
attitude
of
“Everlasting Nay”
(negative attitude towards life).
(2)
One of the
major themes of his is alienation (far away from
each other).
Other
themes:
loneliness,
suicidal
individualism
(individualism
causing
disaster
and death), rejection and quest,
confrontation of innocence and evil, doubts over
- 5 -
the comforting 19c
idea of progress
4.
style
(1)
Like
Hawthorne,
Melville
manages
to
achieve
the
effect
of
ambiguity
through
employing the technique of multiple
view of his narratives.
(2)
He tends to write periodic chapters.
(3)
His
rich
rhythmical
prose
and
his
poetic
power
have
been
profusely
commented
upon and praised.
(4)
His works are
symbolic and metaphorical.
(5)
He includes
many non-narrative chapters of factual background
or description of
what goes on board
the ship or on the route
(Moby
Dick)
Romantic Poets
I.
Walt Whitman
1.
life
2.
work: Leaves
of Grass (9 editions)
(1)
Song of Myself
(2)
There Was a
Child Went Forth
(3)
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
(4)
Democratic
Vistas
(5)
Passage to India
(6)
Out of the
Cradle Endlessly Rocking
3.
themes
–
“Catalogue of American and
European
thought”
He
had
been
influenced
by
many
American
and
European
thoughts:
enlightenment,
idealism,
transcendentalism,
science,
evolution
ideas,
western
frontier
spirits,
Jefferson’s
individualism, Civil War Unionism,
Orientalism.
Major themes in
his poems (almost everything):
?
equality of
things and beings
?
divinity of everything
?
immanence of
God
?
democracy
?
evolution of
cosmos
?
multiplicity of nature
?
self-reliant
spirit
?
death,
beauty of death
?
expansion of America
?
brotherhood and
social solidarity (unity of nations in the world)
?
pursuit of love
and happiness
4.
style: “free verse”
(1)
no fixed
rhyme or scheme
(2)
parallelism, a rhythm of thought
(3)
phonetic
recurrence
(4)
the habit of using snapshots
(5)
the use of a
certain pronoun “I”
(6)
a looser and
more open-ended syntactic structure
(7)
use of
conventional image
(8)
strong tendency to use oral English
(9)
vocabulary
–
powerful, colourful,
rarely used words of foreign origins, some even
wrong
(10)
sentences
–
catalogue technique: long list of names, long poem
lines
5.
influence
(1)
His best work has become part of the
common property of Western culture.
(2)
He took over
Whitman’s vision of the poet
-prophet
and poet-teacher and recast it
in a
more sophisticated and Europeanized mood.
- 6 -
(3)
He has been compared to a mountain in
American literary history.
(4)
Contemporary
American
poetry,
whatever
school
or
form,
bears
witness
to
his
great influence.
II.
Emily
Dickenson
1.
life
2.
works
(1)
My Life
Closed Twice before Its Close
(2)
Because I
Can’t Stop for Death
(3)
I Heard a Fly
Buzz
–
When I died
(4)
Mine
–
by the Right of the White
Election
(5)
Wild
Nights
–
Wild Nights
3.
themes: based
on her own experiences/joys/sorrows
(1)
religion
–
doubt and belief about
religious subjects
(2)
death and immortality
(3)
love
–
suffering and frustration
caused by love
(4)
physical aspect of desire
(5)
nature
–
kind and cruel
(6)
free will and
human responsibility
4.
style
(1)
poems without titles
(2)
severe
economy of expression
(3)
directness, brevity
(4)
musical
device to create cadence (rhythm)
(5)
capital
letters
–
emphasis
(6)
short poems,
mainly two stanzas
(7)
rhetoric techniques: personification
–
make some of abstract
ideas vivid
III.
Comparison: Whitman vs. Dickinson
1.
Similarities:
(1)
Thematically,
they both extolled, in their different ways, an
emergent America, its
expansion,
its
individualism
and
its
Americanness,
their
poetry
being
part
of
“American
Renaissance”.
(2)
Technically,
they
both
added
to
the
literary
independence
of
the
new
nation
by
breaking free of the
convention of the iambic pentameter and exhibiting
a freedom
in form unknown before: they
were pioneers in American poetry.
2.
differences:
(1)
Whitman seems
to keep his eye on society at large; Dickinson
explores the inner
life of the
individual.
(2)
Whereas Whitman is “national” in his
outlook, Dickinson is “regional”.
(3)
Dickinson
has
the
“catalogue
technique”
(direct,
simple
style)
which
Whitman
doesn’t
have.
Edgar Allen Poe
I.
Life
II.
Works
1.
short stories
(1)
ratiocinative
stories
a.
Ms
Found in a Bottle
b.
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
c.
The Purloined
Letter
(2)
Revenge, death and rebirth
a.
The Fall of
the House of Usher
b.
Ligeia
c.
The Masque of the Red Death
- 7 -
(3)
Literary theory
a.
The Philosophy
of Composition
b.
The Poetic Principle
c.
Review of
Hawthorne’s
Twice-told Tales
III.
Themes
1.
death
–
predominant
theme in Poe’s writing
“Poe
is not interested in anything alive. Everything in
Poe’s writings is dead.”
2.
disintegration
(separation) of life
3.
horror
4.
negative thoughts of science
IV.
Aesthetic
ideas
1.
The
short stories should be of brevity, totality,
single effect, compression and finality.
2.
The poems
should be short, and the aim should be beauty, the
tone melancholy. Poems
should not be of
moralizing. He calls for pure poetry and stresses
rhythm.
V.
Style
–
traditional, but not easy
to read
VI.
Reputation: “the jingle man”
(Emerson)
VII.
His influences
Chapter 3 The
Age of Realism
I.
Background: From Romanticism to Realism
1.
the three
conflicts that reached breaking point in this
period
(1)
industrialism vs. agrarian
(2)
culturely-
measured east vs. newly-developed west
(3)
plantation
gentility vs. commercial gentility
2.
1880’s
urbanization: from free competition to monopoly
capitalism
3.
the closing of American frontier
II.
Characteristics
1.
truthful
description of life
2.
typical character under typical
circumstance
3.
objective rather than idealized, close
observation and investigation of life
“Realistic writers are like
scientists.”
4.
open-ending:
Life
is
complex
and
cannot
be
fully
understood.
It
leaves
much
room
for
readers
to
think by themselves.
5.
concerned
with
social
and
psychological
problems,
revealing
the
frustrations
of
characters in an environment of
sordidness and depravity
III.
Three Giants
in Realistic Period
1.
William Dean Howells
–
“Dean of
American Realism”
(1)
Realistic
principles
a.
Realism is “fidelity to experience and
probability of motive”.
b.
The aim is
“talk of some ordinary traits of American
life”.
c.
Man
in
his
natural
and
unaffected
dullness
was
the
object
of
Howells’s
fictional
representation.
d.
Realism
is
by
no
means
mere
photographic
pictures
of
externals
but
includes
a
central concern with “motives” and
psychological conflicts.
e.
He
condemns
novels
of
sentimentality
and
morbid
self-
sacrifice,
and
avoids
such
themes as illicit love.
f.
Authors should
minimize plot and the artificial ordering of the
sense of something
“desultory,
unfinished, imperfect”.
g.
Characters
should have solidity of specification and be real.
h.
Interpreting
sympathetically
the
“common
feelings
of
commonplace
people”
was
best
suited as a technique to express the spirit of
America.
i.
He
urged
writers
to
winnow
tradition
and
write
in
keeping
with
current
- 8 -
humanitarian ideals.
j.
Truth
is
the
highest
beauty,
but
it
includes
the
view
that
morality
penetrates
all
things.
k.
With regard to literary criticism,
Howells felt that the literary critic should not
try to
impose arbitrary or subjective
evaluations on books but should follow the
detached
scientist in accurate
description, interpretation, and classification.
(2)
Works
a.
The Rise of
Silas Lapham
b.
A
Chance Acquaintance
c.
A Modern Instance
(3)
Features of
His Works
a.
Optimistic tone
b.
Moral
development/ethics
c.
Lacking of psychological depth
2.
Henry James
(1)
Life
(2)
Literary
career: three stages
a.
1865~1882: international theme
?
The American
?
Daisy Miller
?
The Portrait of
a Lady
b.
1882~1895: inter-personal relationships
and some plays
?
Daisy Miller (play)
c.
1895~1900:
novellas and tales dealing with childhood and
adolescence, then back
to international
theme
?
The Turn
of the Screw
?
When Maisie Knew
?
The Ambassadors
?
The Wings of
the Dove
?
The
Golden Bowl
(3)
Aesthetic ideas
a.
The aim of
novel: represent life
b.
Common, even ugly side of life
c.
Social
function of art
d.
Avoiding omniscient point of view
(4)
Point of view
a.
Psychological
analysis, forefather of stream of consciousness
b.
Psychological
realism
c.
Highly-refined language
(5)
Style
–
“stylist”
a.
Language:
highly-refined, polished, insightful, accurate
b.
V
ocabulary: large
c.
Construction:
complicated, intricate
3.
Mark Twain (see next section)
Local Colorism
1860s,
1870s~1890s
I.
Appearance
1.
uneven development in economy in
America
2.
culture: flourishing of frontier
literature, humourists
3.
magazines appeared to let writer
publish their works
II.
What is “Local Colour”?
Tasks
of
local
colourists:
to
write
or
present
local
characters
of
their
regions
in
truthful
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depiction distinguished from others,
usually a very small part of the world.
Regional literature (similar, but
larger in world)
?
Garland, Harte
–
the west
?
Eggleston
–
Indiana
?
Mrs
Stowe
?
Jewett
–
Maine
?
Chopin
–
Louisiana
III.
Mark Twain
–
Mississippi
1.
life
2.
works
(1)
The Gilded
Age
(2)
“the two
advantages”
(3)
Life on the Mississippi
(4)
A Connecticut
Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
(5)
The Man That
Corrupted Hardleybug
3.
style
(1)
colloquial language, vernacular
language, dialects
(2)
local colour
(3)
syntactic feature: sentences are
simple, brief, sometimes ungrammatical
(4)
humour
(5)
tall tales
(highly exaggerated)
(6)
social criticism (satire on the
different ugly things in society)
IV.
Comparison of
the three “giants” of American Realism
1.
Theme
Howells
–
middle
class
James
–
upper class
Twain
–
lower class
2.
Technique
Howells
–
smiling/genteel realism
James
–
psychological realism
Twain
–
local
colourism and colloquialism
Chapter 4
American Naturalism
I.
Background
1.
Darwin’s theory: “natural
selection”
2.
Spenser’s idea: “social
Darwinism”
3.
French Naturalism: Zora
II.
Features
1.
environment
and heredity
2.
scientific accuracy and a lot of
details
3.
general tone: hopelessness, despair,
gloom, ugly side of the society
III.
significance
It prepares the way for the writing of
1920s’ “lost generation” and T. S.
Eliot.
IV.
Theodore Dreiser
1.
life
2.
works
(1)
Sister Carrie
(2)
The trilogy:
Financier, The Titan, The Stoic
(3)
Jennie
Gerhardt
(4)
American Tragedy
(5)
The Genius
3.
point of view
(1)
He embraced
social Darwinism
–
survival
of the fittest. He learned to regard man
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as merely an animal
driven by greed and lust in a struggle for
existence in which
only the “fittest”,
the m
ost ruthless, survive.
(2)
Life
is
predatory,
a
“game”
of
the
lecherous
and
heartless,
a
jungle
struggle
in
which
man,
being
“a
waif
and
an
interloper
in
Nature”,
a
“wisp
in
the
wind
of
social
forces”,
is
a
mere
pawn
in
the
general
scheme
of
things,
with
no
po
wer
whatever to
assert his will.
(3)
No
one
is
ethically
free;
everything
is
determined
by
a
complex
of
internal
chemisms and by the
forces of social pressure.
4.
Sister Carrie
(1)
Plot
(2)
Analysis
5.
Style
(1)
Without good
structure
(2)
Deficient characterization
(3)
Lack in
imagination
(4)
Journalistic method
(5)
Techniques in
painting
Chapter 5 The Modern Period
Section 1 The 1920s
I.
Introduction
The
1920s
is
a
flowering
period
of
American
literature.
It
is
considered
“the
second
renaissance” of American
literature.
The nicknames
for this period:
(1)
Roaring 20s
–
comfort
(2)
Dollar Decade
–
rich
(3)
Jazz Age
–
Jazz music
II.
Background
a)
First World
War
–
“a war to
end all wars”
(1)
Economically:
became
rich
from
WWI.
Economic
boom:
new
inventions.
Highly-consuming society.
(2)
Spiritually:
dislocation, fragmentation.
b)
wide-spread
contempt for law (looking down upon law)
1.
Freud’s
theory
III.
Features of the literature
Writers: three groups
(1)
Participants
(2)
Expatriates
(3)
Bohemian
(unconventional way of life)
–
on-lookers
Two
areas:
(1)
Failure of communication of Americans
(2)
Failure of
the American society
Imagism
I.
Background
Imagism
was
influenced
by
French
symbolism,
ancient
Chinese
poetry
and
Japanese
literature
“haiku”
II.
Development: three stages
1.
1908~1909:
London, Hulme
2.
1912~1914: England -> America, Pound
3.
1914~1917: Amy
Lowell
III.
W
hat is an
“image”?
An
image is defined by Pound as that which presents
an intellectual and emotional complex
in an instant of time, “a vortex or
cluster of fused ideas” “endowed with energy”. The
exact word
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